“Who remembers stories of old?”

There has been something that has been constantly floating in my mind for many years now, something that I believe could bring back the importance and heart back into the Call of Duty series. It is time for them to go back to their roots and create a next gen game set in World War I/II. At first I felt that I would be the only one thinking this, but seeing the backlash over the recent trailers and gameplay footage of the next installment in the series, “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare”, I now know that I am not the only one with this idea which is why I have chosen to bring it up and write about it. I will tell you my reasons as to why I believe it is about time we get the old Call of Duty back and the benefits in going back to this historic setting will have on gaming. Point No.1 – Story The last few installments in the Call of Duty series have all been successful and have provided gamers with fast and fluid multiplayer allowing for in depth levels of customisation and intergrated accessibility on a wide range of media devices such as tablets and phones. However, it is this attention to multiplayer over the last few years that have made it quite obvious that this is now the focus of Call of Duty. What has been lacking in the previous installments is an engaging meaningful single player campaign that has true heart and a powerful impact. The reason why we enjoyed the old Call of Duty games so much was because we felt as though we were playing a part of history. Fair enough the representations of some famous battle scenes were probably not 100% historically accurate, but at least what we were playing gave us an insight into history and the dread that our soldiers went through to fight for their countries. Knowing that what we was playing actually happened meant that approached it with a level of respect. The problem that Call of Duty face setting their games in the “Modern Warfare/Ghosts/Advanced Warfare era is that we personally don’t have anything to attach ourselves to in the story. These wars/conflicts have not happened, the stories are made up to dramatise the action and what we are left with is basically a Michael Bay movie full of explosions and chaos. Due to the fact that we are playing fiction means that it holds no real impact like the old games did. I’ll repeat my previous comment that I’m not saying that the old Call of Duty games were 100% historically accurate or even show events as they actually happened, but they are based on such happenings and because we know that this is a representation of something that happened many years ago and played a pivotal role in our lives we immediately approach it with more engagement. I believe that by actually going back and creating a new Call of Duty games set in either World War 1 or 2 where there is a campaign which actually focuses on real war veteran stories it would really create an impact and hit you emotionally and in doing so give a single player campaign more meaning and heart. Point 2 – Detail/Graphics/ Gameplay As a kid playing the first Call of Duty games, I used to be amazed at the spectacle and chaos that I used to see on screen. Being apart of major historic battles and seeing so much action in a first person perspective in a battle hardened town in Europe allowed game designers to create beautiful and often heartbreaking scenes. With the technology in which we have today in terms of next gen consoles and high spec PC’s just imagine the sheer amount of detail and realism that designers could create for a new game in the series set in WWI/II. I remember watching ‘Saving Private Ryan’ years ago and hoping that one day we would have a Call of Duty game that looked as real as what I was seeing on screen. I used to come up with my own game scenarios where a group of soldiers slowly make their way through a deserted town with their fellow soldiers, rain bouncing of their steel helmets and all of time being tracked by a German sniper. The addition of new levels of gameplay would also be an advantage in rebooting a new series set in WWI/II. The implementation of the full potential of the DualShock 4 for example on the PS4 would have a great impact on gameplay, maybe having to tap on the controller’s touch pad like morse code to communicate air strikes or even having the radio communications coming through the controllers speaker. My worst fear is that soon we will be faced with First Person Shooters all being exact copies of one another, how soon will it be until all FPS are set in the future? We need a fresh new reboot of the Call of Duty series to show exactly what they can do with the new technology in their hands and I believe that it would be more than a great call back to their first dedicated generation of fans to give them a gave that they are all waiting for. Watching the new trailer for Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare, left me thinking, “is this even a Call of Duty game?” without the Call of Duty logo placed on the trailer would you have been able tell? Again I am not saying that aspects of Advanced Warfare look don’t look fun or impressive, I am simply saying that they should consider going back to where it all began but with a new next gen twist. So what do you think? Should the Call of Duty series go back to its roots?

I do think it would be nice if they went back and made a WW2 Call of Duty again but I don’t see it happening. It probably wouldn’t sell well or would be a shell of how interesting the old games were. I do think that a lot of shooters will try being futuristic now because of Advanced Warfare. People keep thinking that the games sell well because of the plot which is just not true. The Call of Duty games just have nice controls and lots of action on top of it being a well-known name.

TheScienceEnthusiast1130

What is their roots?

Wrathful

Yes, I hate those hollywood and cinematic story of call of duty these devs are focusing on. I used to like original Call of Duty for AUTHENTICITY not because I like first person shooter.

Jaedrik Cobalt

There are countless factors that go into the art of immersion, and the great stories of old carry a mien of authenticity which cannot be passed over as fantastical or silly. The willingness to suspend disbelief is deeply connected to this sentiment already. Other contributing measures, as it was said, are the detail, the little things. This may sound shallow, but ‘wow’ing the player with small scale anomalies of atmosphere–things like rain plinking off the soldier’s helmets in a very detailed way–is a great way to draw them closer to the world. So, I guess I agree with the article above. Further, it seems as if the quality of video game music and the sound mixing and lack of customization therein have contributed to those more audio minded individuals, such as myself. 😀